Fundraising walker to resume UK coastal challenge at Nedd in Sutherland
A FUNDRAISING long-distance walker returns to Sutherland this weekend.
Fifty-year-old Blue Wilson is walking solo around the UK coastline intermittently to raise money for two marine conservation charities.
The Ordnance Survey puts the length of the UK’s coastline at 11,073 miles, but Blue intends to walk all the major British islands
In total, she reckons it will be around 19,000 miles.
Blue, from Selby, North Yorkshire, set off on her epic journey in December 2021 and has so far walked just over 3,500 miles in 199 days.
To date she has raised £5110 for Surfers Against Sewage and Sea Changers.
She is using her weekends and annual leave to walk , one or two weeks at a time, alternating between walking north on one leg and south on the next. She averages 20 miles a day.
Her support driver, Andy Argyle, drops her off at her starting point each morning and picks her up at night. The challenge is self-funded, including all travel to and from the start and finish points, accommodation, food and equipment.
Blue said: “I have reached as far south-west as Mawgan on the coast of Cornwall and as far north- west as Nedd in Sutherland in one continuous line. I have also walked as many walkable islands as possible along that route.”
Blue resumes her walk again at Nedd on Saturday, May 3. Her next walk will be in Orkney in August.
She said: “I will be walking for seven days and hope to reach Achnasheen.
“I hope to walk as much as I can each year until I have successfully completed the entire British coastline in an estimated five to 10 years.”
Blue continued: “I have seen and experienced some incredible things on my journey so far and have made some amazing new connections with fellow coast walkers.
“Plastic pollution never ceases to shock me, and I see the enormity of the problem as I’m walking along our coastline and roadsides. The effects of plastic, pollution and raw sewage discharges on wildlife in our rivers, lakes and coastline are catastrophic.”
Donations can be made via Blue’s JustGiving Page (Blue Wilson Walks the UK Coastline). For further information on the fundraiser, visit her Facebook page, which goes under the same title as above.
